William Blum, US Policy Critic Derided By NYT, Dies At 85

William Blum, US Policy Critic Derided By NYT, Dies At 852018-12-172018-12-16https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/12/william-blum.jpg200px200px

Above Photo: From Fair.org

The New York Times (12/11/18) takes posthumous potshots at a historian who documented the history of US intervention that the Times often leaves out.

You know you’ve lived well—well enough to rattle the establishment—when theNew York Timessmears you in the obituary it runs about you (FAIR.org,6/20/13).

That distinction was achieved by William Blum, historian and critic of US foreign policy. Once a State Department computer programmer who aspired to “take part in the great anti-Communist crusade,” he quit government in 1967 out of disgust with the Vietnam War and became a founding editor of theWashington Free Press, one of the first alternative papers of the New Left. In books likeThe CIA: A Forgotten History(re-released asKilling Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II) andRogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower, Blum documented the violent and anti-democratic record of the US empire; he was a reference that FAIR frequently turned to when noting what was missing from the corporate media’s version of history.

How did theNew York Times(12/11/18) frame this remarkable life? With this remarkable headline:

William Blum, US Policy Critic Cited by bin Laden, Dies at 85

Yes, to theTimes, the most important thing about Bill Blum’s life is that Osama bin Laden onceremarkedto Americans, in a tape released from hiding, thatRogue Statewould be “useful for you to read.”

“Blum denounced the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington,” obituary writer Sam Roberts acknowledged, “and said he would not want to live under an Islamic fundamentalist regime.” But, Roberts scolded,

he did not disavow the recommendation or express regret that bin Laden, the orchestrator of those attacks, shared his disdain for the policies carried out by the department where he had once worked.

It’s unclear what formulation Roberts was looking for from Blum; should he have denied that his book would be “useful…to read,” or wished aloud that bin Laden had been a supporter of the State Department policies? There are certainly some policies where you’d find the State Department, Al Qaeda and theNew York Timeson one side, and Blum on the other—such as the invasion of Afghanistan that bin Ladenhoped to provokewith the 9/11 attacks, and theprotection of Idlib, Al Qaeda’s last stronghold in Syria, from Syrian government attack. Should theTimes“express regret” that it finds itself on the same side as the 9/11 orchestrators? The editors would no doubt protest that they backed the invasion of Afghanistan and the defense of Idlib for very different reasons than Al Qaeda would, but that’s a distinction that they don’t grant their ideological enemies.

Zbigniew Brzezinski

If it wanted to give a better sense of the relationship between William Blum, the US foreign policy establishment and Islamic extremism, it might have noted that it was William Blum who spotted and translated (with David Gibbs) theinterviewZbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, gave to the French publicationLe Nouvel Observateur(1/15/98). In the interview, Brzezinski boasted of launching a secret program in 1979 to undermine the government of Afghanistan, a covert operation that he correctly predicted “was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.” Asked by the interviewer, “Do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?” Brzezinski responded:

What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?

When Brzezinksi died in 2017, hisNew York Timesobituarydid not bear the headline, “Brzezinski, Official Who Boasted of Promoting Al Qaeda, Dies at 89″—though surely that is more relevant to Brzezinski’s legacy than bin Laden’s book review is to Blum’s.

The Blum obit achieved what former FAIR staffer Peter Hartdescribedas “peakNY Times” with this petty putdown:

He also reiterated his unpopular, but not unique, position that American intervention abroad had been breeding enemies and inviting terrorism.

It’s not clear how “unpopular” Blum’s views were—in a 2013 YouGov poll, 61 percent agreed with the statement, “In the long run, the United States will be safer from terrorism if it stays out of other countries’ affairs”—but what is certainly “not unique” was theTimes‘ attempt to use an obituary to settle ideological scores.

An amazing fellow that wrote well and contributed greatly to my understanding of the world and the many faults of my country. I feel a sense of loss I don’t really understand…he was just a writer?

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